


A Quiet Moment

by swaneewhistleandkazoo



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: After Action Patch Up, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Animal death (minor), BAMF Tina Goldstein, Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Face Punching, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Love, Minor Injuries, Post-Movie 2: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 11:32:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17425085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swaneewhistleandkazoo/pseuds/swaneewhistleandkazoo
Summary: After a difficult day, it’s nice to be able to come home to someone who loves you.





	A Quiet Moment

**Author's Note:**

> Just to be safe the Author would like to warn that this has minor description of animal deaths its not graphic but I like to be safe.

The dark streets of London looked downcast and grimmer than usual, Newt observed quietly to himself as he apparated into the spotlight of the flickering streetlamp in the deserted alley by his house making the fog swirl. Shivering against the cold he hunched his shoulders and drew his grey coat more firmly around his neck wishing that he’d remembered his scarf when he’d left his house this morning and with gritted teeth limped off towards his house.

His footsteps echoed dully through the thick fog and the empty street, dim points of light in an otherwise deserted world. Across the quiet city the clock struck midnight and the candles flaring in all the windows in the houses on either side of the street guttered and danced with the sudden cold draft of air that had decided to crawl up his coat sleeves and cause goose bumps to erupt all over his body.

He should have remembered his gloves as well as his scarf.

The windows of his own home are dark, empty and unwelcoming. It used to be a relief to come home to his creatures and escape from the expectations of judgement of the outside world, not that he was ever in the rest of his house having spent most of his time in the basement. But that was before Paris and suddenly his house was full of people as well as creatures, Jacob, Nagini, Tina all establishing a temporary home base for them here while searching for Grindelwald and his acolytes as well as constantly bustling with coming and going of the other members of Dumbledore’s little resistance movement.

It had taken awhile for him to acclimatise to the sudden influx of people invading his private space but over time he’d grown accustom, even to enjoy the company. It was at that point when he’d realised that its people that make a house a home.

Especially Tina.

So it feels rather odd to come back and find it empty and he can’t quite stop the cold, sad, loneliness from welling up inside his chest.

Or that could be his injured ribs.

_Stop it_ He scolded himself mentally giving himself a little shake _You knew no one would be home tonight. Tina’s gone with Theseus and the rest of the Grindelwald Task Force to Austria on a raid and who knows when they’ll be back. It could take days or weeks for them to track them down and strike. Jacob had volunteered to take the nightshift at the bakery he worked at, so one of his colleagues could care for his sick wife. And at this hour Bunty’s gone home and Nagini’s probably asleep in her snake form like all the other sensible people in the world not madcap magizoologist._

It took an embarrassingly long time for him to climb the steps up to his front door, open it and then practically fall into shadowy hallway of his house. The pain from his side and ribs is so great it makes his head swim as he staggered into his kitchen, not bothering to turn the lights on, and collapse at his well worn kitchen table with a sigh, kneaded his eyes with the heels of his hands and sighed.

A terrible end to an awful day.

*

_The day hadn’t started so badly; the trouble had started just after lunch he was in his office at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures at the Ministry of Magic wresting with a form, when one of his colleagues, a pale faced newbie about as inexperienced as they come, had rushed in and passed on the message from the Magical Law Enforcement Squad requesting his assistance._

_Apparently the Enforcement Squad had captured a anti-muggle wizard was in a feud with his muggle neighbour’s farm and the wizard had released a Nogtail into the muggle’s pigsty and watched with glee as the demonic creature had grown bigger and bigger and blighted the farm with great misfortune. They’d requested Mr Scamander to come and banish the Nogtail from the farm after all he was the expert._

_So delighted to escape from his office for the rest of the day he’d collected one of the albino bloodhounds, Cyrus, from the Pest Sub division and disapparated to the farm._

_To the worst Nogtail infestation he’d ever seen or heard off, no wonder it had been reported by a concerned neighbouring witch to the Magical Law Enforcement Squad. A despairing pallor hung over the farm like mist and the rain while light drummed down relentlessly soaking everyone to the skin and increasing the already dismal atmosphere. The bodies of pigs lay still and rotting in the mud. While the other dull eyed, skinny livestock huddled miserable and shivering in the corners of the field. Worse much worse as he’d neared the farm’s kitchen door and could hear a woman sobbing, her frightened and confused young children clustered around her, the lead Enforcement Officer had taken him aside and told him that the Muggle farmer, the woman’s husband, had died this morning in an accident, which was what had brought the Enforcement Squad’s attention and the Wizard’s arrest._

_Enraged on behalf of the dead man and his widow and children, he’d spent hours stalking the Nogtail, desperate to lift the Nogtail’s curse from the farm. Until eventually he’d cornered it in a dingy lean too next to the barn, filled with rusting farm equipment and then released the bloodhound from his case to drive it from the farm boundaries._

_Forgetting for a brief moment that he was standing between the Nogtail and the farm’s boundaries._

_With an enraged squeal, the Nogtail engorged the with sow’s milk it had stolen and the misery it has caused had charged at him. He’d just caught a glimpse of its_ _narrow black eyes, coarse pelt, a thick stubby tail, and long legs as its thick boney head caught him on his side and tossed him like a ragdoll into the side of the barn, he’d heard a dull crack and pain splintered across his ribs like lightning. Fantastic was he pretty sure he now had broken ribs. Through the stars dancing across his eyes he’d watched the Nogtail flee across the field as Cyrus, the white bloodhound, persuaded it baying madly. As it disappeared into the mist and across the farm boundaries he felt a surge of satisfaction, at least the Nogtail would never return now._

_Once he’d picked himself up from the mud and ignoring the pain of his injured ribs he’d spent hours trying to heal the sick animals and was mostly satisfied with his results._

*

In the darkness of his kitchen his sense of triumph faded to nearly nothing and despondency pressed heavily down on him.  _Children have lost their father today_ he reflected grimly staring without seeing out of the window into the blackness of his yard _and they may have to sell their farm because almost all their livestock were thin and sickly looking so they’d probably not make any profit of them this year. That or go very lean this winter._

_All this tragedy all because of a prejudice muggle hating wizard._

The remembered stench of the rotting bodies still hung heavily all around him and the pain of his injured rib’s throbbed with the beat of his heart and aching loneliness and fear for Tina’s safety bubbled up again. Tina’s off god knows where, probably in terrible danger. Maybe she’s get injured or captured, maybe she’s even be killed without him from her side and he can’t stop himself from worrying. His worries weigh so much upon him that he can’t even bring himself to get up and make himself a cup of tea and some Skelgrow.

But he was too bone weary to lift a finger.

He’s jerked back into full awareness and away from his miserable thoughts when Tina flicks the light on and he has to blink rapidly to adjust to the sudden illumination. Instantly he’s bathed in the warmth of her presence like he’s been dunked in a hot bath, she has a nasty looking cut on one cheek but she’s home and he’s immediately elated. How could he have missed her come in?

And she’s furious, glorious with power, radiating anger as palpable as heat and he’s enamored by her. Well more so than usual.

“Tina” His ribs protest vehemently at being forced to stand again “What are you doing home? I thought you’d be away for weeks?”

Concern for him briefly overcame whatever had infuriated her “Are you alright? You look hurt?”

“Tina” Disregarding his own hurts he’s much more concerned about what happened on the raid and why she’s home so early “What happened on the raid?”

Tina snarled and whirled around on her heel, fury returning as she unbuckled her coat while starting to pace.

His eyes couldn’t help but follow Tina as she paced angrily across the room, over to the pantry and back several times like a tiger in a cage. Carelessly discarding her dark navy leather auror’s jacket over the back of a chair she agitatedly ran her fingers through her short dark hair making it even more disheveled than it already was, sticking up adorably at the back.

Her white shirt is glowing under the electric light, gold locket bouncing on her chest and he’s hypnotized by its movements.

“Hendleson, the Stupid Putz! Got himself spotted and blew the whole thing” She growled “Carrow and Rosier spotted him trailing them and spooked them all…we had to go in before everyone was in place” She snarled pivoting gracefully like a dancer on her heel and strode back along towards the pantry “We captured MacDuff and Nagel and a couple of their thugs got killed in the crossfire but…” She spun on her heel to pace the length of the hall and back in frustration “We were so close, Newt. Another five minutes we’d have got them all”

Dismayed he leaned against the back of his chair sharing her anger and disappointment.“Bugger!” He cursed, the biggest lead they’d had for months on the location of Grindelwald, Credence and Queenie’s location and it was blown squandered by that idiot Hendleson.

Tina nodded in agreement, still pacing unable to settle “Theseus is furious! Heads will roll for this! Achilles’ is in St Mungo’s he’s got a dandelion for an arm but he’ll be ok and a few others got stunned and spell damaged.”

There’s something about her expression made him pause, an echo of a long held private sadness that makes a horrible certainty drop heavily into the pit of his stomach. Ignoring the pain in his ribs he caught her by the wrist to prevent her and lead her gently by her forearms to prevent her from pacing.

The glimmer of unshed tears in her dark eyes confirms it for him. Yes he’s certain about what has upset her so much. Gently he stroked the tender skin of her wrists, tracing the blue lines of her veins until she calmed a little. “Queenie was there wasn’t she?”

Her beautiful fire in dark water eyes tighten with pain and a single tear escapes from them, tricking over the gash on her wounded cheek and she gave him one short abrupt nod before she leaned her forehead against his collarbone, hiding her anguish from the world.

“I barely recognized her, wearing black” Tina’s voice is sad, muffled against his shirt “Not with all the spell’s firing all over the place and she just so…. I don’t know…. Angry? Cold? I nearly got to her” She gestured sharply at her injured cheek “Then I got this and I had to deal with Rosier” From the dark satisfaction in her voice Rosier did not get away unscathed “I don’t know where she went after that.”

She let out a heavy sigh and drew back, her dark eyes traced over him, cataloging everything. “What about you? You look about as good as I feel?”

The stench of the farm and the memory of its despairing inhabitants rear back to the front of his mind. He doesn’t want remember that now not with Tina here in his arms, its been week’s and he’s missed her so much.

Cupping her jaw with both hands, tracing her cheeks with his thumbs and feeling her pulse pounding against his fingers he kissed her desperately as he pressed her back against the wall and she responded just as hungrily digging her fingers into the curls on the nape of his neck, dragging him closer. It’s not one of their gentler kisses, more teeth and tongue than anything, it’s pain and pleasure mixed chaotically together, but it’s what they both need right now.

Just as he’s trying to un-tuck her shirt from her trousers, her defter hands, he’s all thumbs whenever he tries to take her clothes off, manage to undo the buttons of his shirt enough for her to run hand across his chest and he’s drugged by pleasure of her hands on his bare skin until she reaches his probably broken ribs.

The sharp pain even from her light touch makes him cry out and not in a fun way.

“Newt!” She pulled away from him in alarm “Are you alright?”

“Fine” He doesn’t want this to end and pressed a little kiss onto the corner of her jaw in a silent plea for her to continue.

Tina fixed him with a stern no nonsense glare and gently but firmly pushed him away from her. With a disappointed sigh that their amorous interlude was over he relinquished his hold on her and sat back down on his uncomfortable chair while she deftly removed his shirt. Dismay darkened her dark eyes until they were almost black as she probed gently at the substantial multicoloured bruise on his chest. It’s actually quite impressive; he should show it to Achilles next time they met.

“Newt” The expression on her face makes lying or evading the question impossible. “Tell me whats wrong?”

So in dribs and drabs he’s able to relate the story of the day’s terrible events to her while she forces him to drink a dose of Skelgrow which makes him gag no matter how many times he’s taken the revolting stuff and then a cup of tea which he doesn’t even attempt drink, Tina cannot make tea to save her life it either comes out as weak as water or strong enough to creosote a fence, but simply having something warmth between his palms makes him feel better.

When he’s finished relating his day and how awful he feels about the whole situation, Tina looked thoughtfully at him, chin leaning on one hand “You were able to get that Nogtail off the farm, so the blight’s lifted right? And you were able to save some of their animals at least.”

“That’s not the point” He muttered if he stares into the depths of his tea long enough will it eventually show him the solution to this problem? “This shouldn’t have happened at all, all the suffering that’s going to come from this, the deaths and a family that might starve this winter, all because of some idiot decides that muggles don’t matter as much as wizards do”

His helpless fury at the unfairness of it all is almost overwhelming.

“Mr Graves told me something during my training, after this one case when everything went south.”  She swallowed “Badly” He knows she holds complicated feelings towards her old boss. On one hand he’s her beloved mentor who handpicked her out of the ranks of trainee Aurors, seeing something in her she hadn’t even seen in herself and trained her, teaching her everything he knew. And on the other hand he’s the man who belittled her, demoted her and nearly killed her. “He said ‘Goldstein all you can do it your best and hopefully leave the world a better place than when you found it, if not you get back out there and try again the next time.’”

He blinked owlishly at her.

She shrugged took a sip of her tea and grimaced at the taste “You tried the best you could Newt that’s all you can do and you did help that family, you couldn’t have done anything before today.” She slid over to him and wrapped herself around him and he leaned against her willowy frame, she felt warm and very strong. “I love you Newt and I’m so proud of you”

They’ve said those words so often to each other by not he doesn’t trip over the words anymore “I love you too” Her expression is haunted, he know she’s reliving all her failures “Queenie will come back to us I know she will, it is not your fault you couldn’t reach her this time” he reached for her hand a squeezed it.

To his horror Tina flinched at his touch, at first he thought it was something he’d said until she carefully cupped her hand and winced, her knuckles are red and slightly swollen and from the way she was grimacing as she felt them over, painful.

“Oh” she gave a little shrug “I punched Abernathy”

Tina, he knows, has nursed a long held grudge against Abernathy and an even longer held desire to break his nose. Every chauvinistic comment, snide remark, belittlement or demeaning task that the Abernathy had ever inflicted on her she’s recorded and left smouldering deep within her. His defection to Grindelwald’s side and the subsequent losses of both Leta and Queenie was the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

No wonder she decked him.

“Tina!” he exclaimed as he cradled her hand between his and skilfully felt along each of her slender bones, muscles and tendons. Feeling for any breaks or abnormalities and apart from some soreness she seems to be unharmed “You could have broken your hand”

She looked at him flatly “I know that’s why I asked Jacob to teach me” she looked ruefully at her hand “It still smarts though. But you should have seen his face.”

Chuckling he dropped a light kiss onto her sore knuckles as the clock struck 1 o’clock “Come on” he gave her a little tug and she got to her feet and helped him up “Bed”

“Bed” She agreed.

The Skelgrow’s doing its work and the splinters are rapidly becoming glass shards. No matter how many times he’s taken the potion how much it hurts to regrow bones still surprises him. Tina has to help him up the stairs to their bedroom, with him leaning heavily on her shoulder; otherwise he’d have been there all night.

_Heal_ He told his ribs sternly and to distract himself from the discomfort as he curled around Tina in their bed counting her breaths, it’s quite hypnotic and soothing for him, a bit like counting sheep only he’s not so distracted by remembering different breeds of sleep and forgetting to actually go to sleep, as she drifted off to sleep  

He reaches three hundred and ninety four breaths before he too drifts off.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> A Nogtail is a demonic creature resembling a stunted piglet, but with narrow black eyes, a thick stubby tail, and long legs. It is mainly found across rural areas in Europe, the Americas, and Russia. Nogtails sneak into pigsties and suckle on an ordinary pig, which curses the farm. The longer the Nogtail goes undetected, the longer the blight will stay on the farm. And has to be driven away by a White Dog from the farm boundaries after which it will never return.
> 
> What happened to the farm is inspired by one of the Stories by James Herriot, a Vet/Writer who based his stories in the 1920-1930s. Check his books out he’s pretty great, kinda like a muggle Newt. By the way that story has a happy ending.
> 
> I left it ambiguous if Newt and Tina are married at this point or if they’re still only dating cos I’m not too sure where this sits on the timeline. I leave it up to you guys to decide. 
> 
> I’m not sure if Newt and Tina are a little OOC, they’ve both had a bad day and are entitled to be a little out of sorts.
> 
> Your comments and kudos are deeply appreciated


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